Prague, June 26 (CTK) – Czech authorities may build a new camp for refugees in Vysni Lhoty, north Moravia, if the Czech Republic accepts hundreds of refugees as the capacity of the existing centres will not be sufficient, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Friday.
Justice Minister Robert Pelikan told journalists Friday that his ministry can offer the Vysni Lhoty facility to the Interior Ministry for refugees. Originally, the Vysni Lhoty facility was to be turned into a prison, he said.
Out of the 700 beds in Czech refugees centres, only 200 are still vacant, MfD writes.
The Czech government may accept perhaps up to 1,000 refugees and the police have detained tens of them when illegally crossing the border, it adds.
Obviously, as the capacity of the camps will be soon filled, the Czech Republic urgently needs another centre, MfD writes.
At present, the refugees stay in the camp Bela-Jezova, central Bohemia, it adds.
It is for the refugees who did not submit an application for asylum and are waiting for deportation.
This is a facility with a strict internal regime, surrounded by high fences and barbed wire, MfD writes.
It is almost full. “Out of its 270 places, 220 are filled,” head of the foreigner police, Milan Majer, is quoted as saying.
“There is the plan of adding some 70 places, but if a large group arrives, we will have no place for the inmates,” Majer said.
Along with the foreigner police, the Interior Ministry is looking for a new facility for about 200 persons that will have the same conditions as in Bela, MfD writes.
“It may be a former prison, barracks, simply a compound that can be rapidly adapted,” Majer said.
“We would like it to be in Moravia,” he added.
The compound of the former barracks and refugee camp in Vysni Lhoty is the likeliest locality, MfD writes.
A prison was to be established in the village at the foothills of the Moravian-Silesian Beskids, but the compound is now deserted, it adds.
With its 580 beds, the compound, measuring 75,000 square metres, was used as a refugee centre between the mid-1990s and 2009, MfD writes.
Petr Pondelicek, a senior official of the Refugee Facilities Administration, said the camp was to serve not only for the foreigners who are to be deported, but also for asylum seekers.
“This is being discussed, but no decision has been made,” Pondelicek said.
The camp is to be strictly divided into two parts, MfD writes.
One is to have a regime almost like in a prison, the other part is to be for asylum seekers who may regularly leave the camp, it adds.
The locals in Vysni Lhoty are used to the co-existence with refugees, MfD writes.
In the village with 700 residents, there were 500 of them, it adds.
Mayor Dana Novakova said the locals were not protesting against the possible renewal of the centre, MfD writes.
Along with the establishment of a new camp, the state authorities would like to use and expand the existing ones, it adds.
“The asylum seekers may be sent to the camps in Kostelec nad Orlici, east Bohemia, and Havirov, north Moravia, that still have about 200 vacancies,” Pondelicek said.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec has suggested another alternative, MfD writes.
“We have ministerial accommodation facilities such as spa buildings and recreational facilities that may be used for a short time,” Chovanec is quoted as saying.
